Mind Games
by Engage
Summary: Jack helps Sam with the unsolvable Su Doku puzzle. Just some nice relatively plotless SJ fluff. Written for the SJothon on RepliCartertje's LJ.


This fic was written for replicartertje's Sam/Jack-a-thon under the prompt: SuDoku! (You know you want to see Jack trying to figure out how to do it.) Bear with me here people, I don't write a heckofalotta lot of fanfiction. Cookies to the reviewers. Constructive criticism is appreciated. :D

Season: 8

Rating: T just to be sure

Summary: Jack helps Sam solve the unsolvable SuDoku puzzle.

* * *

_Knock knock._

_Damn it, he's early. _"Just a minute!" Samantha Carter yelled as she struggled with her earring. Tonight she was going out to dinner with Pete, who had recently become her fiancé. Apparently he was taking her to some fancy ( and presumably expensive) restaurant with elaborate décor and live music. He had stressed to her over the phone that it was absolutely essential to dress up for the occasion. Something she did not do often. Sure, Pete meant well, but Sam would much rather have had a nice uncomplicated meal someplace quiet.

Sam looked herself up and down in the mirror and sighed. She longed for her pajamas or even her BDUs. Nothing could be done about that now, it was time to leave on her date with-

"Carter? You in there?"

General O'Neill?

The front door creaked open, and her suspicions were confirmed.

"Hey Carter, I was just in the neighborhood and I thought-" He cocked his head in true O'Neill fashion and gestured in her direction. "You going somewhere, Carter?"

"Well actually sir, I was about to go out to dinner with… Pete." She answered somewhat self-consciously, looking down at her black dress and high heeled shoes. This had the potential to become an extremely awkward situation.

"Ah…"

"Yeah." Oh yeah, awkward.

A few _very_ painful moments of silence followed, and then something too wonderful for words happened.

The phone rang.

* * *

Sam picked it up before it got through it's first ring, Jack let out an enormous sigh or relief. Perhaps it was a little too enormous, since Carter smiled that cute little smile of hers.

"Oh hi! Okay. No that's no problem at all."

What the hell was he doing at Carter's house anyway? Okay, well he knew the answer to that, he wanted to see her. _But she's engaged Jack, quit being an idiot._ God, he had to get out of here before Pete got here. These few minutes had been bad enough already, the least he could do was try not to ruin her entire evening by ticking off Petey-boy. He didn't like Pete, and Pete didn't like him. They had a sort of… _understanding._

"All right. I guess I'll see you then." Sam hung up the phone. "That was Pete. He got tied up with something."

"So is he gonna be late?" Jack asked, hoping for some time to escape.

"No, he... can't make it tonight."

"Ah."

This time it was Sam who broke the silence. "Would you like some coffee or something sir?" She hung up her coat and moved towards the kitchen, Jack followed.

"How about a beer? Got any of those?"

Sam laughed and produced two cans of his favorite foamy drink from her fridge. She didn't seem to be too disappointed about the whole Pete thing, and for that Jack was extremely grateful.

"Ahh, beer." Jack said adoringly as he sat down at the kitchen table. He noticed a book sitting there. "Su… Doku." He read the title out loud. "What's this Carter? Doesn't look sciency to me."

"It's a game sir." Sam said, coming around the table to sit next to him. "See these little boxes? They all have to have the numbers one to nine in them."

Jack was flipping through the book. "That sounds too easy…" There must have been something more to it, or it wouldn't pose any challenge to his brainy Lieutenant Colonel.

"There is, sir. The rows and columns also have to have all nine numbers." She scooted closer and flipped to a page she had finished. "See?"

Jack nodded, but he was more concerned at that moment with the fact that Carter and her little black dress had just moved their chair a blissful 2 inches closer to his. He shook his head and returned to reality, in which Carter was speaking again.

"There's one puzzle at the end here that I just can't seem to figure out."

"_You_ Carter? That's impossible." But it was true. She had flipped right to the end of the book to an almost-done puzzle with the numbers one to nine scribbled all over the page. The incredible Carter was stumped.

"I think I've messed up somewhere. I have every box filled but these two down here. But I can't find any that are wrong."

Jack decided that he would try and help her solve the unsolvable Su Doku puzzle. After all, if she had made a mistake, chances are that she had thought about it too much, and Jack knew that was one thing he was never in any danger of doing. So naturally, he scooted his chair closer, swearing to himself that it was because he needed a better look.

Sam was not unaware that General O'Neill had just moved his chair exactly 3.7 inches closer to her; she simply chose not to do anything about it. There was absolutely nothing wrong with that. Was there?

"What about there?" The General pointed at one of the boxes on the page.

Sam studied the space for a few seconds and found nothing. This stupid puzzle was going to be the death of her. "What's wrong with it?"

"Isn't there an extra 5… oh never mind."

She turned her head and smiled at her 'helper,' who was much closer than she had previously thought. Oh well, not much could be done about that now could there? She could feel a blush starting to rise in her cheeks and turned quickly back to her work.

He was completely soundless as she toiled away. She was sure he was watching her, but she dared not find out for fear her stomach would turn to goo. At first she just thought he was quiet because he was trying to figure it out too, but that was not very Jack O'Neill. It very quickly got to the point where she could no longer think, and resorted to doodling nervously on the page.

"Carter, what are you doing?"

She gulped. She could almost feel his breath as he talked. _Almost._ Just a few inches closer...

No. That was not a good idea. What about Pete? What about the fact that she was engaged? Did that mean nothing? Pondering that thought for a moment, Sam realized that it did in fact amount to very little when compared to the man that she was sitting here with. _Damn._

"Carter?"

This time she looked at him, right into his eyes. Her stomach- as promised- turned to mush and if she hadn't been sitting, she was sure her legs would have given out as well.

"I… I couldn't think anymore." Trying to mask the shakiness in her voice was a lost cause. Those brown eyes were captivating. She wanted to look away, to stop anything from happening, but it was too late for that. "We…" she gulped again "we need to talk about this."

"Yes, we do."

Sam wasn't aware of any Goa'uld symbiote inside of her, but at that moment something seemed to have taken complete control of her body, and she began moving closer to General O'Neill.

Holy Hannah she was going to kiss him. Her mind was screaming at her. Reminding her of Pete and the frat regs and every other reason why they could not be together. But she was, for once in her life, going to ignore them all. She had been waiting for such a long time for this to happen, saved the world so many times. She deserved this. They both did.

He paused before their lips met, waiting for confirmation. She smiled and closed the tiny gap between them without any hesitation. It was perfect, everything she ever imagined and so much more. His arms found their way around her waist, pulling her even closer. The fraternization regs could wait. Right now an air force Colonel was kissing her General and there was nothing anyone (not even that damn Kinsey) was going to do about it. She knew, even though she would have to break the news to Pete, and even if one of them had to resign, that everything was going to be okay.

When- to Sam's vast disappointment- they finally pulled apart, Jack smiled at her. "By the way," he said "you've got extra 2 in the first row."

* * *

R&R! Thanks. :D 


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